With my Peeler I had the bottom absolutely flat and checked the bulkheads being level and vertical. There were some variations but not 1/2". Check that the stitch wires are tight and the bulheads are centered between the stitch holes. The fillets fill alot but 1/2" seems too much!   

   When the front bulkhead is aligned between the side wire holes it is even more tilted.  The base is constrained by the tabs.  The only way to get the front bulkhead square to the floor would be to either cut off the tabs or drill new wire holes. 

When we wired up my Peeler, the bulkheads' vertical alignment was fine.  I will admit that I didn't test them with a level.  I would suggest sticking with the holes as they came from CLC.  Just make sure that the wires are appropriately tight.  There is no particular reason that the forward bulkhead needs to be perfectly vertical.  The forward seat overlaps it by a couple of inches so it's unlikely to be noticeable.  Boats are essentially curved objects.  True right angles are rare.

Some Peeler builders have mentioned supporting the bottom only at the ends which introduces a small amount of rocker to the bottom.  They felt that the parts fit a little better that way.  We built my Peeler on a flat table, so the bottom was perfectly flat and everything fit well.  If you are concerned with the fit, you might experiment with putting shims (maybe 2x4s) under the bottom at the bow and the stern.  My only warning would be: do your experimenting before tack welding.  Impatience and boat building do not go well together.

Cheers and good luck!

>>>>When the front bulkhead is aligned between the side wire holes it is even more tilted.  The base is constrained by the tabs.  The only way to get the front bulkhead square to the floor would be to either cut off the tabs or drill new wire holes. >>>>>>>

The forward bulkhead in the Peeler is NOT "square to floor."  This is because the Peeler Skiff's bottom panel curves upwards towards the bow, like all flat-bottomed skiffs.  So the angle between the forward bulkhead and the bottom panel is less than 90 degrees.  If you look in the side view of the drawing, you can see the subtle curve of the bottom:

So if you stick with the slots and indexing marks in the kit, Bulkhead 1 will end up perfectly "plumb" as intended.  But it's not mounted at 90 degrees to the bottom panel.  (Bulkheads 2 and 3 are much closer to 90 degrees to the bottom panel, as the bottom is, in fact, nearly flat from the middle of the boat to the stern.)

John,

Thanks, that makes sense.  While it wasn't a big difference I got concerned given the permanence of the next step.

Jeff